Good Day

Two things are making today really great:


1.

It's squash central over here! I didn't intend to when I made my weekly meal plan, but almost all the recipes I chose feature squash! I am not complaining. Acorn, butternut, and spaghetti!

2.

I love it when both of my favorite magazines arrive on the same day!

Back in the kitchen tonight to whip up some deliciousness, then catching up on Grey's Anatomy! More good stuff :)

Veggilicious Fall Chili

I'm getting ready to leave for Washington DC for the long weekend and want to leave B with food so he doesn't try to survive on granola and taqueria tacos (not that he would mind).

Last week, I doubled an enchilada recipe and stuck half in the freezer, so all he has to do is let it defrost, then smother it with salsa and cheese and stick it in the oven (are you listening, honey?). Tonight, I made a huge pot of chili - perfect for this blustery fall weather!

Veggilicious Fall Chili
Ingredients

• 1T olive oil
• 1 onion, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1T chili powder
• 1T cumin
• 1 1/2t oregano
• 1 red bell pepper, diced
• 1 zucchini, diced
• 1 yellow squash, diced
• 28oz can crushed or diced tomatoes
• 1T chipotle peppers*
• 13oz can black beans
• 13oz can pinto beans
• 1 cup frozen corn
• 1 large handful chard, chopped
• Sour cream & cilantro, for garnish

Method

1. Heat olive oil in a nonstick skillet. Add onion and garlic, cook until soft.
2. Add chili powder, cumin, and oregano. Cook for 1 minute.
3. Add bell pepper, zucchini, and yellow squash. Cook for just a few minutes.
4. Add tomatoes, chipotle peppers, beans, corn,  and chard. Stir to combine.
5. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer 20-30 minutes.
6. Garnish with sour cream and cilantro. Enjoy!

*I buy those cans of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce and run them through my food processor. Then, I freeze them and chip off 1T pieces as I need them (1T equals 1 pepper!). I guess if I were really fancy, I would just freeze them in 1T pieces (maybe in an ice cube tray?), but I'm not that fancy.

I also made my own bread tonight!

I have always been so intimidated by bread, but Jenna's post a week or so ago inspired me.

It was so easy! A lot like making pizza dough, but with more waiting.

I did yoga while the rolls rose.

And after dinner, I cooked up some of those frozen Apricot Espresso Chocolate Chip Cookie dough balls I made a few weeks ago.

Not bad for a Tuesday.

The Little Engine that CAN

Sorry to hit you with such a bummer post last night. I try not to take things my students say and do personally (especially since so many of them are not mature enough to make good decisions about their words and actions 100% of the time), but it's hard sometimes. I'm happy to say that this morning I am feeling much better, thanks in part to this:

I have a a confession: I don't like Starbucks very much. But come fall, like many, I am all over the pumpkin spice latte. I can't help myself!

Did you know that today is the first day of fall? Last night, B and I celebrated by making a very fall dinner, Heather's Roasted Acorn Squash Chili!

I think I roasted my squash a little too long because it was very mushy and kind of fell apart when I stirred it into the chili, but overall this was a really yummy dish. I especially love the roasted squash seeds on top!

In other fall news, I picked these up at Safeway last weekend:

Hello, lover...

I'm planning to make a batch of Pumpkin Blueberry Muffins this evening. Yum!

As many of you know, I teach junior high English. This is actually my first year teaching at the junior high level - for the last three years I have taught high school, mostly 9th and 12th grade. Teaching junior high has been fun, but also challenging for me. I have to be a lot more sensitive when I am giving student's consequences for bad behavior because they get their feelings hurt very easily (and I have a tendency to be sarcastic). There are also a lot of touchy-feely community-building activities that we are expected to do with our Advisory class (it's kind of like homeroom and meets once a week), and I am not a very touchy-feely person. 

Yesterday, we had one of those activities. I went into it thinking, "Well, at least the kids will be occupied during Advisory!" but it actually ended up being a really cool experience. Basically, the kids were given strips of paper and were instructed to write down things they are good at on each strip of paper. On one strip they had to say one activity they were good at, on another one academic thing they were good at, on another what their family would say they were good at, and on another what their friends would say. Then, they linked all their papers together to form one long chain that I put up in my room:

The idea, of course, is that we're all good at many things and that we are all connected somehow. Very touchy-feely. :)

As I struggled to stand on the top rung of my ladder and staple this massive paper chain to my wall (all the while thinking, I am totally going to fall and get hurt and no one will even know because my classroom is hidden and no one ever comes out here), I thought about how neat it was that my students had the opportunity to reflect on positive things in their lives. Their strips said cute things like: reading, making people laugh, listening, playing soccer and funny things like: doing my hair, texting, riding a bike with no hands, eating pizza.

We focus so much on the things we can't do. I can't run a sub-8 minute mile. I can't swim in open water. I can't do math. I can't find the time to get all my laundry put away before I have to do another load. It's kind of a bummer! Today I am going to celebrate the things I can do.

• I can be a great wife.
• I can teach 150 seventh graders how to write analytical paragraphs (it's hard!)
• I can cook a lot of things.
• I can be in control of what my family eats.
• I can run a half-marathon.
• I can read really fast.
• I can, I can, I can...

What can you do/What are you good at?

Unwind

As soon as I typed that title, I was reminded of a super-creepy young adult novel I read last year by Neal Shusterman by the same name and now I am totally creeped out remembering how weird it was! I might have nightmares...
 
B and I went running this afternoon. I planned to do 4 miles, but around 2.5 my knee started hurting (I forgot my brace again, I am a dummy). I managed to finish 3.1 miles (5K) in about 27 minutes, then power-walked the rest of the way in.

I was a little disappointed that like two weeks ago I ran a flipping half marathon and today I couldn't even complete 4 miles, so I decided to unwind with a little yoga.

....Unwind was the wrong word to use there. Jillian's Yoga Meltdown is a WORK. OUT. I was shaky and dripping with sweat when I finished. I find Jillian herself pretty obnoxious, but I have to admit, she knows her stuff. The workout combines power yoga poses with repetitions and intervals. My heart rate was up - it is definitely aerobic. I also didn't get bored or distracted, which tends to happen when I practice traditional yoga. However, it did not help me unwind! I took a long, hot shower afterward and felt a little better.

For dinner we just scrambled eggs and ate them in a tortilla with prosciutto, cherry tomatoes, and goat cheese. Sometimes, you just want eggs for dinner!

Last night, though, I made a pretty awesome soup. I recommend you make this soup immediately and then eat it for every subsequent meal for the next week, since that's about how much soup this makes.

[Source]

Mexican Inspired Vegetable Soup
from Shutterbean

Ingredients

• 1 medium yellow onion, chopped
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 3 carrots, chopped
• 1 32 oz. container vegetable stock
• 1 15 oz. can diced tomatoes
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin (a heaping one is just fine)
• 1 bunch kale, chopped
• 1 red pepper, chopped
• 2 medium zucchini, chopped
• 1 medium sweet potato, peeled & chopped
• 2 12 oz. cans black beans, rinsed & drained
• 3 corn tortillas, diced
• 1/2 bunch cilantro, chopped
• hot sauce
• salt & pepper

Method
In a large pot, heat olive oil with onions on medium heat and cook until onions are transparent. Add the carrots, garlic and cumin to the pot and cook for about 3 minutes. Add the vegetable stock and canned tomatoes to the pot, raise the heat to medium high. Add the kale, zucchini, red pepper, sweet potatoes and black beans to the pot and bring to a boil.  Add in your tortillas, half of your chopped cilantro and a few splashes of hot sauce and stir.  Reduce heat and simmer for about 15 minutes.  In that 15 minutes, add the rest of your cilantro and taste the soup every now and then to see if it needs more salt, pepper or hot sauce.


I actually took pictures of this myself, but these are pictures that Tracy took because I'm too lazy to get my butt off the couch and get my camera. Doesn't it look yummy?

[Source]

Do you practice yoga?

Too Hot for Soup?

My sweet husband is HOOOOOME!

 

Engagement Pictures - Kali Kraum Photography

But before he came home, I did a flat, fast, and hot 3-miler at the track in my parents' neighborhood.

Run stats? Glad you asked!

• Total Mileage: 3.14mi
• Total Time: 26.53
• Average Pace: 8:33min/mi

I wanted to do 4, but my tummy started bothering me around mile 3. I walked a half mile to cool down and called it a day. C'est la vie!

After I picked B up from the airport, we grabbed lunch at Alotta's. Next to my family's grocery store, I think Alotta's has pretty much the best sandwiches on the planet. However, I forgot to ask for no mayo, so my veggie sammy was a little gloopy (blech!) and my stomach continued to feel weird for the rest of the day. Bummer.

Brian promptly fell asleep on the couch while I puttered around in the kitchen. Upon seeing these little cuties, I asked myself, Is it too hot for soup?

If produce could talk, they would have said, Yes, Megan, it is far too hot for soup! but I decided to make it anyway. Could you resist those cute little UFO squash? I sure couldn't.

Summer Squash and Gypsy Pepper Soup
Ingredients

• 1/4 cup chopped onion
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 1 1/2 cups sweet gypsy peppers (bell peppers work too)
• 3/4 pound summer squash, sliced thin crosswise (about 3 cups)
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 cup low-salt chicken or vegetable broth

Method
1. In a large skillet cook onion in olive oil over moderate heat, stirring, until softened. Add gypsy peppers and cook, covered, stirring occasionally, until pepper is softened, about 5 minutes.

2. Stir in squash and garlic and cook, covered, stirring occasionally, until squash is tender, about 10 minutes.

3. Stir in broth and bring mixture to a simmer. Pur�e soup (in a blender or with an immersion blender) until smooth and transfer to a saucepan. Cook soup over moderate heat until just heated through, stirring in enough water to thin to desired consistency, and season with salt and pepper.

4. Serve with Tapatio, if you like it spicy (we do)!

I thought a giant bowl of steaming soup was just way too overwhelming, so I served it up in ramekins. Perfect! We also had leftovers of Angela's Time Crunch Enchiladas and a totally juicy and amazing honeydew melon from our CSA box. Yum.

Despite the staggering heat in my kitchen, I kept cooking after dinner (I know, I'm crazy). I have been wanting to try Heather's Oaties for a while now and knew Brian would want something sweet later on (Who am I kidding, I would want something sweet later too!). They were great!

Mmmmm, I almost just ate it all raw.

There is a sort-of funny story behind this silly penguin tin. I got this tin in college as a gift, full of some holiday treats, I can't even remember now. I keep wanting to get rid of it, because it's kind of ridiculous, but it's sort of become our designated "baked goods" tin. Whenever it is sitting on the counter, B knows I have been baking and he gets super excited. I guess I can't get rid of it now!

Our big plans for Friday include renting a carpet cleaner. Thrilling stuff!

What are you up to this weekend, friends?